Fanatics remains retailer not manufacturer
Scott Sillcox, sports licensing consultant, on the economics of Fanatics' contracts
Fanatics is still much more retailer than manufacturer. The company owns a real portfolio of in house brands, but the bulk of what moves through its stores is still merchandise made by outside licensees that Fanatics merchandises and distributes. In practical terms, most of the jerseys, hats, mugs, and other team gear sold through Fanatics are not made by Fanatics owned brands, even though Fanatics controls the storefront, customer relationship, and shelf placement.
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Scott Sillcox estimates Fanatics Retail, meaning ecommerce, Lids, Barnes & Noble College, and team stores, drives about 80% of company sales. That means the company’s center of gravity is still selling and operating channels, not manufacturing goods itself.
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On the merchandise side, the main owned brands are Majestic, Top of the World, WinCraft, Mitchell & Ness, and Topps. Sillcox puts those at about 5% to 10% of licensed sports sales, then revises that to roughly 10% to 15% as Fanatics takes more jersey volume.
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That gap matters because Fanatics can still be vertically influential without being mostly private label. It controls online team stores for hundreds of properties and a large share of licensed sports commerce, so it can steer traffic toward its own products while still earning money selling everyone else’s goods.
The direction of travel is toward a bigger owned goods mix, especially in jerseys and other core apparel. But the likely end state is not a store full of only Fanatics made merchandise. It is a marketplace like shelf, run by Fanatics, where a modestly larger private label share improves margins while the broad assortment keeps leagues and fans buying through the same channel.